On Feb. 1, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed new rules that would exempt certain religious organizations,
including houses of worship, schools and hospitals, from a new mandate
to offer free contraception services to women employees. The new
regulations would instead require the nonprofits’ health-insurance
providers to offer and pay for contraceptive services. The new proposal
is the latest step in a controversy that first arose in 2010, with the
enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The
contraception mandate has been the subject of much debate and the object
of many lawsuits (read more about public opinion on the birth control insurance mandate).
To help explain what today’s announcement might mean for the debate,
the Pew Forum asked Professors Ira C. Lupu and Robert Tuttle of The
George Washington University Law School to discuss the new rules and the
possible outcome of the legal challenges to them.